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<h1><a href="https://archiveofourown.org/works/26204890">Augenblick</a> by <a class='authorlink' href='https://archiveofourown.org/users/AdelineVW7/pseuds/AdelineVW7'>AdelineVW7</a></h1>

<table class="full">

<tr><td><b>Series:</b></td><td>canonverse works [5]</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Category:</b></td><td>Naruto</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Genre:</b></td><td>Angst, Death from Old Age, F/M, Genjutsu, Hurt/Comfort, Memory, Memory Loss, Old Age, Tenderness</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Language:</b></td><td>English</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Status:</b></td><td>Completed</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Published:</b></td><td>2020-08-31</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Updated:</b></td><td>2020-08-31</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Packaged:</b></td><td>2021-05-06 07:54:16</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Rating:</b></td><td>General Audiences</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Warnings:</b></td><td>Major Character Death</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Chapters:</b></td><td>1</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Words:</b></td><td>1,080</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Publisher:</b></td><td>archiveofourown.org</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Story URL:</b></td><td>https://archiveofourown.org/works/26204890</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Author URL:</b></td><td>https://archiveofourown.org/users/AdelineVW7/pseuds/AdelineVW7</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Summary:</b></td><td><div class="userstuff">
              <p>The scene melts into a blaze of red sky. In this realm between light and shadows, he takes her by the hand and leads her back, through the paths they have shared until now. He could not prevail on the moment to stay, but he will make it so that it is full, and whole. He will make it so that it could hold her, when he could no longer do it himself. </p><p>[where Sakura begins losing her memories, and Sasuke does his best to hold on.]</p>
            </div></td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Relationships:</b></td><td>Haruno Sakura/Uchiha Sasuke</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Series:</b></td><td>canonverse works [5]</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Series URL:</b></td><td>https://archiveofourown.org/series/2236722</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Comments:</b></td><td>13</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Kudos:</b></td><td>64</td></tr>

</table>

<a name="section0001"><h2>Augenblick</h2></a>
<div class="story"><div class="userstuff module">
    
    <p>They have grown old together, as was the fondest wish of both their hearts. </p><p>The strength has left his limbs, and hers, too—they are no longer able to wield their weapons as of old, no longer able to call on their chakra to cast the powerful jutsus they used to be able to do with ease. Even his famed eyes are beginning to fail him. All the world has become a blur of confused color, except when he looks at her. Because memory fills in what his eyes now miss, and to him she always will be spring sunshine, the balm to his long-wounded heart.      </p><p>But Sakura has begun losing her memories.</p><p>Sometimes they would be sitting together talking, and after a lull in conversation, she would only be staring at him blankly. For a long moment, her eyes would hold no recognition for him, no acknowledgement of all that they ever shared. They would be strangers, once again.</p><p>Once upon a time when they were still children, she had told him <em>if you left me, it would be the same as being alone</em>. He could not understand her then, but now he is beginning to see what it was that she feared, why she wept for him so. When she looks at him now without knowing who he is, the torment is a sharp pain in his chest. The thought of it brings him pain—constant, immeasurable, almost too much to bear.  </p><p>He doesn’t know if it is worse or better, but she is not lost to him completely. Sometimes, she would still <em>remember, </em>and be Sakura—his lover, his wife, the most cherished companion of his life. The girl who waited for him, even when he was lost and his coming back was only the dimmest of possibilities. In these moments of lucidity, she would look at him, the love in her eyes clear and undiminished. She would draw him into her embrace and touch his forehead with her lips, already apologizing for the next time she will be gone. </p><p>
  <em>Where do you go, my heart? Why can you not take me with you?   </em>
</p><p>He realizes—this is what it is like, to be the one always waiting.</p><p> </p>
<hr/><p> </p><p>
  <em>Sasuke-kun, </em>
</p><p>
  <em>This is it, my love. My springtime is past, and memory drifts away from me like leaves falling from the trees. Soon they will all be gone, and I with them. </em>
</p><p>
  <em>Forgive me; I did not want to go like this. I did not want to break my promise. But these are the cards we have been dealt. Would that it were me instead, who has to stay behind and wait! You know I would wait for you—even for a hundred, or a thousand lifetimes, should the heavens so decree it. </em>
</p><p>
  <em>I love you. I will always love you. Know that the fact of my leaving cannot touch this truth. Let it hold you, and sustain you, when I am gone.  </em>
</p><p>
  <em>I do have one thing I wanted to ask of you. One final request.  </em>
</p><p>
  <em>Please do not let me leave without remembering you. I do not want to go, having forgotten everything we have ever shared. If I do, I will be lost—I will forever be wandering the shades, unable to come home. </em>
</p><p>
  <em>It sounds utterly selfish, I know, and I have no words for how sorry I am. But still I must ask this of you. Please do not leave me alone, without even the memory of you to keep me company.  </em>
</p><p>
  <em>Always, and irrevocably yours, </em>
</p><p>
  <em>Sakura. </em>
</p><p> </p>
<hr/><p> </p><p>It is dusk, and they are alone. He sits by her bedside, dreading that which is to come—the separation looming over them.</p><p>"Are you ready?"</p><p>"I don't think I will ever be, my love,” she admits, tearful. “I'm afraid."</p><p>"Ah." <em>It's the same for me.</em> He reaches for one of her hands, his touch full of the utmost tenderness.</p><p>"Will you hold me?" Her voice is plaintive, meek.</p><p>"Of course."  <em>Would that I could do it forever. Would that I could hold you, and never ever let you go again. </em></p><p>"I love you," she tells him, an attempt at comfort. An apology. The most she that she can give him now.</p><p>“I know.”</p><p>“Always.”</p><p>“I know that.”</p><p>There is a brief spell of silence, and they just look at each other, trying to commit the scene to their memory. Because it is the last one they will share.  </p><p>It is Sasuke who speaks first. With a wavering voice, he offers, “You know... that if you’d stay with me, I would make every single one of your days happy?”</p><p>“Sasuke, I-"</p><p>He blinks back the tears that begin clouding his vision. “I will not let you regret it. Won't you stay, Sakura? With me?”</p><p>“I-!” She sobs, overcome. “I'm sorry, Sasuke-kun. I’m so sorry.”</p><p> </p>
<hr/><p> </p><p>When there were no more words to be said, he cups her face with both his hands, and draws closer, touching their foreheads together. He activates his sharingan, meets her fearful, loving gaze. And then he casts the illusion.</p><p>The scene melts into a blaze of red sky. In this realm between light and shadows, he takes her by the hand and leads her back, through the paths they have shared until now. He could not prevail on the moment to stay, but he will make it so that it is full, and whole. He will make it so that it could hold her, when he could no longer do it himself.</p><p>For the moment, he commands all of their time. And here, now, he bids them be composed thus: all their joys stretching into infinity, all their sorrows passing by in the blink of an eye. He collapses the time she spent waiting and weeping for him, and lets them both dwell longer in the tenderness of their union—the journey that brought them closer, the long years they have spent together, the home they have built between the two of them.</p><p>With more than words, with all that he knows, he tells her: <em>I love you with all my heart. </em>He lets her know how utterly lonely he will be, without her by his side.</p><p>But all too soon, the moment ends. He feels when her heart beneath his palm stutters its final beat, and hears it when she draws her last breath. She exhales it, in a whisper, "Till next time, Sasuke-kun." She smiles at him, and closes her eyes.</p><p> </p><p> </p>
  </div><div class="fff_chapter_notes fff_foot_notes"><b>Author's Note:</b><blockquote class="userstuff"><p>"Augenblick" means "moment" in German. The title also pays homage to Goethe's Faust--there were lines in the play that had Faust saying, "Verweile doch, du bist so schön!" (Stay a while [moment], you are so beautiful!).</p><p>Thank you for reading, and please do let me know what you think, if you can spare the time.</p><p>[This was first posted as a three-part thread of snippets on Twitter. I am also @/AdelineVW7 on twt, if you want to hang out!]</p></blockquote></div></div>
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